Stephanie Meder

Stephanie started cycling in July 2021 on a borrowed bike. She was immediately hooked and fell in love with cycling. Three months later, she bought a road bike and began cycling in almost all her free time. Then four months later she developed a runner’s knee, a damage to the cartilage under the kneecap. “I was going full speed every time I got on the bike. So, I needed someone who would help me train smarter and ultimately get faster.” Stephanie was introduced to her coach, who was also her bike fitter*, in Zurich.

Her coach designed a programme blending long endurance sessions in the countryside outside Zurich and challenging interval sessions on her home trainer (intense bursts of pedalling followed by lower-intensity periods). He also added stretching and strengthening workouts to her schedule. Unlike with a tennis or personal trainer, Stephanie and her coach trained virtually using a training app. Together, they dialled the volume and intensity up and down according to Stephanie’s racing and life schedule. In winter, she replaced outdoor cycling with ski touring.

With this level of commitment one would be forgiven for thinking Stephanie is a professional athlete, but no. She works full time as Senior Strategic Project Manager in the Corporate Office and commutes frequently for her projects between Geneva, Frankfurt and Zurich where she lives. She usually wakes up at 5.00am and trains before work. “My coach regularly reminds me to ‘put my health, family and job first’ to avoid burnout, which is frequent among elite amateur athletes. I try to stay flexible and to listen to people around me.”

With all this training packed into her routine, in 2023, Stephanie decided it was time to prove herself and signed up for her first race, l’Étape Switzerland organised by Tour de France, a 137 km race in Central Switzerland. She finished second female overall. “That’s when my coach saw real potential in me.” High off the success of her race, a friend told her that she was participating in the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, a long-distance, mass-participation cycling event, characterised by challenging routes and a competitive atmosphere, typically ranging from 120 to 240 kilometres. “I knew I was faster than her.” So two months later Stephanie entered a qualifying race in Varese, Italy and finished first in her age group.

Which brings us to Aalborg, Denmark on that cool September morning. Stephanie had taken the week off before the race to mentally prepare on the over 1000 km drive to Denmark and familiarise herself with the race course. This would be her most challenging race and she wasn’t completely sure of herself. The training programme leading up to the race had been extremely strenuous with intensities she had never done before. “I only reached my power goals a few weeks before the event.”

But come race day, Stephanie’s strategy is clear. “I knew I couldn’t rely on my climbing abilities, so I had to be smart about conserving energy and position myself well in the peloton.” From the start, she sticks to the front, avoiding crashes and staying out of the wind as much as possible. “Riding in a peloton can be tricky, especially when you don’t know the other riders. You have to trust your instincts and react quickly if another rider breaks, crashes or swerves in front of you.”

As the race progresses, Stephanie strikes out on the short climbs. “I knew early on that I could increase the pace on the hills, that this would fatigue the others. I felt I was much stronger on the climbs than the other riders” She leads the pack in the final kilometres. “I’d wanted to prevent a sprint finish, but I ended up shielding some riders from the wind and at the last seconds, they overtook and flew past me. I crossed the finish line two seconds behind the first rider.”

Despite her best efforts, Stephanie finishes sixth overall and fifth in her age group. “It was frustrating to be so close and not make it onto the podium. But I’m proud of my performance and to have competed against the best amateur racers in the world.”

A week later, Stephanie is back on her bike in Bad Dürrheim, Germany. This time, she’s surrounded by pro female riders at a Bundesliga race (German Elite Female category). This time, she manages to conserve energy for the final sprint and leaps to the finish line. She finishes third on the podium.

Looking ahead, Stephanie has her sights set on new challenges. “I want to compete in the European Gran Fondo Championships and become European Champion, which is a mountain race in Alsace, France. It plays to my mountainous terrain strengths. Also, I am currently looking for an UCI continental team to continue racing in Elite Female road races."

When she’s not riding her bike, Stephanie Meder is Senior Strategic Project Manager in the Corporate Office at Pictet Group.